Father Daughter Bonding
by Ausiewanab
Summary: Maureen comes home and bonds with her father over a sandwich.


Disc: I don't own Elliot Stabler and the Stabler family. So thus, you can't sue me.

Spoilers: A minor spoiler for Wrong is Right

Rating: G

Author note: Thanks to all who read Faith and commented on it. I must apologies, my beta reader is bogged down with the real world and jobs, so she isn't available to beta this. Sorry in advance for any mistakes.

**Father-Daughter Bonding**

Maureen Stabler sat at the end of the long wooden dinner table in the corner of the kitchen. It was her first time to be home in over three weeks since she started back up for her spring semester of her sophomore year at Hudson University, and for the first time since she had lived in this house, it was empty. Only the sound of her fingers lightly wrapping across the wooden table was heard. Maureen felt disappointed. She had told her mom that she was coming home for the weekend, but yet, her mom didn't feel it was necessary to tell her they would be, they being her mom, Kathy, her sisters Kathleen, and Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's twin Dickey, and maybe, if New Yorkers decided to be friendly to each other, her father would be with them.

 Her father, her poor father who worked too hard to make sure that her family had everything they wanted. Her father, who worked for very little money, and yet had to clean up after the scum of New York who decided to violate someone's rights, or to be more specific, their sexual rights, her poor father. She often wondered how he was able to do his job. She had once seen a dead body on fire, which had scared her to death. She couldn't imagine having to look at stuff like that everyday you went to work. 

Then there was her mom, the wife who was too understanding at times, and not enough understanding at others. She wasn't sure how it was that her mother put up with all the late night overtime her father pulled, or the fact that her father's partner was a beautiful woman named Olivia. Somehow, her mom was able to raise four kids by herself since her father was too busy bringing home the bacon for the family. Then there were the other times when she could hear her parents arguing at nights, mostly about stupid things, such as her father not telling her mom about what he does at work, or the late night phone calls, or even the fact that her father would rarely come home during the night in time for diner. 

Maureen's thoughts were disrupted when she heard the sound of the garage door opening. She slowly gathered herself as she watched her father walk quietly into the house. She watched as he walked over to the island in the kitchen to look at the mail that had come in that day. She had wondered how long it would take for the veteran detective of 15 years to notice that his oldest daughter was sitting alone at the kitchen table. She watched as he opened an envelope and read its contents, then sighing and putting the letter, which was probably another bill, down on the counter. He then walked over to the refrigerator and opened it while looking for presumably for something to eat. She watched as he moved jars around while rummaging through the leftovers that had probably been in the refrigerator since before she had left the last time for the start of the new school semester. Leftovers held over for him, her father, to eat when he got home from work. She waited for him to pull a package of lunch meat from the meat compartment and close the door before she spoke up to gain his attention. "Hi Daddy," she said, startling him. 

"Maureen, how long have you been there?" He asked as he sat his lunch meat down on the table, and kissed his daughters forehead.

"For a little while," Maureen said as she smiled. She then got up out of her seat, walked over to the counter by the refrigerator, and grabbed the sack of bread, doing what she had done many times before for her hopeless father, help him make his supper.

"How are your classes going?" He asked as he grabbed the lettuce out of the refrigerator. 

"They're fine." 

"Just fine, is that all? Sure doesn't sound like I'm getting my moneys worth."

Maureen smiled. Her father had a unique sense of humor when it came to life. He always was able to deflect a possible touchy situation by cracking a joke or two. She guessed that it came along with the type of work he did, and the ability to stay sane was to be able to laugh every now and then. "Don't worry Dad, your getting your money's worth." She said in a reassuring tone as she buttered the bread with mayonnaise.

"Good, because I'd hate to hear that your just there to party and not to learn," Elliot said. He paused as he thought of questions to ask his daughter to maintain the conversation flow between them. "Made any new friends in your classes?"

"A few," Maureen said as she placed the meat neatly down on the two slices of bread. She looked at her father, and decided to move beyond short talk and actually bond with him. "Well, there is this one guy, he's my lab partner in Biology, and we've been working on our labs together after class. He's real nice and down to earth." She said as she watched her father squirm in his seat at the sound of a guy being friends with his daughter. 

"Where is he from?" Elliot asked using his detective skills. 

"Uh," she said as she stumbled with her words trying to remember details about her partner. "He use to live in Hawaii until his senior year of high school, that's when his parents died and he went to live with his guardian in Maine." She said as she finished up making his sandwich. She then slid the plate over for him to eat.

"Hawaii to Maine, what a change in climates," Elliot said to his daughter with a smirk on his face. "Let me guess, he was a surfer back in his days in Hawaii?"  
  


"Probably, I don't know." She said trying to deflect the possibilities that she might have a crush on her Biology partner. She then realized that her father, being the detective that he is, had figured already what was going on inside her head about her partner. "Besides, Dad, he has a girlfriend who attends Oxford."

Elliot just laughed at his daughter. It was in this rare moment that didn't happen often, that he was able to bond with his first daughter. He was about to pick up the sandwich that she had helped make him, when he realized that she, herself, probably haven't had ate herself. He reached over and pulled the knife out of the mayonnaise, wiped it off by using the side of the jar, and cut the sandwich in half and gave one of the halves to his daughter. 

At first, Maureen didn't want to accept the sandwich. She wasn't a big meat eater, but then she remembered that her father was making the second step, advancing from where she started the conversation, by giving her half of his sandwich. "Thanks Dad." She said as she took a bite of the sandwich. As she quietly ate the sandwich, she realized that her and her father were, even though they weren't talking much, having one of the most endearing moments she had ever shared with her father, in her life. 

Right as she was about to finish the sandwich, she heard the minivan pull up to the driveway, and then the sound of the door opening numerous times followed by the various jumbles of words from multiple conversation filled the room. She finished her sandwich as her mom walked into the kitchen. 

"Maureen, I didn't think you would be home so early." Kathy Stabler said as she placed the paper bag of groceries down on the counter. "I didn't think you'd be home till after eight at least." She stopped and looked at her husband and daughter. "What are you two doing?"

"Just eating our supper together, and talking." Elliot said as he kissed his wife's cheek. 

"Everything okay," Kathy asked in concern. 

"Fine, Mom. Everything is fine." And for now being, she felt closer to her father than she had ever felt. And for once, she felt that everything would be okay in her family.

Reviews are gladly accepted. Good, bad, or just to say hi, I'll take them all. 


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